HART - A new fire authority collaboration between the Hart and Pentwater fire departments may soon become a reality, according to County Emergency Management Director Troy Maloney, who presented the idea to the Hart City Council Tuesday, May 12. The proposed new entity would be known as the “West Michigan Fire Authority” and provide two full-time assistant fire chiefs, one at each department. Even though Hart Fire Department Fire Chief Dwight Fuehring and Pentwater Fire Department Fire Chief Jonathan Hughart are in full support, they were unable to attend the meeting because they were out on a fire call.
“Operationally, we’re already sharing a lot of services, but no one has enough manpower. There's zero full-time staff anywhere in the county, no full-time chief (and) no one running your business. We're talking about a million-dollar business a year, and there's nobody at home running it,” Maloney began.
Maloney went on to say that both the Hart and Pentwater fire departments are healthy, and while every fire department in Oceana County has talked about forming an authority at one time or another, these are the first who’ve said, “We need to do this. It makes sense. If we want sustainable organizations in today’s world, we simply cannot go it alone.”
The fire authority would be open to any fire department that wanted to join. A Joint Power of Authority would be formed with both Hart and Pentwater signing an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) contract. “While honoring the history of each of these organizations, this would be creating a new fire department together. The authority would be legally binding and address everything from money to manpower. There wouldn’t be up-front savings, but it would slow down escalation of costs over time,” Maloney said after the meeting.
Right now the Hart Area Fire Department is run by a “fire command board," which is more of an advisory board, Maloney said. It’s not required, but we would recommend that someone from city council, an elected official, sit on the proposed West Michigan Fire Authority board, which would include representatives from the City of Hart, the Village of Pentwater and the townships of Hart, Weare, Golden and Pentwater and one member at large. By having an elected council member sit on the fire authority board, it is a more demographic form of representation, he said.
With the budget Maloney and his committee are proposing, the numbers are very close to what the city is currently paying for its paid-on-call fire services. “While developing the budget, we've seen so much efficiency that could be realized. We could afford to hire those two people at no additional cost to the players that are involved,” Maloney added. “We're trying to design a system that's going to be sustainable for the future - and while we're healthy, not waiting until we're in trouble.”
Council member Betty Root asked if other entities would be able to join. Maloney said the fire authority would be designed to allow other departments to join if they wanted to. “The idea is you start with the two that are already doing really well together, let them establish the system, and then if others want to come in, you vet them, because maybe one of those departments isn't a good fit to you. Maybe they're not in financial standing. You want to be able to control who comes into the program. But it will be opened up to everybody,” answered Maloney.
One of the two assistant fire chiefs would be responsible for all of the required training and act as fire marshal for the authority, Maloney said. Neither Hart nor Pentwater has fire marshals, but by law, each department is still responsible for fire marshal functions. The second assistant fire chief would run the overall day-to-day operations of the authority and oversee the first responder medical aspects.
Maloney’s presentation was quick and an overall introduction to the idea. He told the council he would be happy to return, slow the whole presentation down and allow council time to digest the information and ask more questions.
When asked what timeline the fire departments were working with, Maloney told council the Pentwater Fire Department is planning to go for a millage this November and is hoping to know by September 1 if a new fire authority will be formed so they would have time to discuss budgeting and ballot language.
In a follow-up phone call with Maloney, he shared the following additional information. Fire authorities aren’t new to Michigan, but they are new to Oceana County as a whole. Under a new fire authority, the station located closest to a fire would be sent. They would not be restricted by political boundaries. As a result, response times could be improved. He, along with the Hart and Pentwater fire chiefs, met with Golden Township on Wednesday, May 20. Weare Township, who has also been involved from the beginning, will be hearing the full slowed-down presentation and take part in a question/answer session soon. Maloney reported that Hart and Pentwater fire departments responded to 1,260 calls in 2025.
